College support for foster children limited

LANSING - Anna Dexter-Cheeks takes three buses each morning to get where she never thought she'd go.

Reared in Michigan's foster care system from the age of 3, she is now 21 and the places she's called "home" read like a Southeast Michigan road map - Detroit,Southfield, Allen Park, Detroit again, Dearborn and Garden City.

She now has a 4-year-old daughter, no job, no car and no home of her own - they stay with a friend. But each morning as her bus rumbles to a stop at Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), her fellow passengers could be mistaken for thinking her a typical college student.

It's an illusion Dexter-Cheeks works hard to maintain.

"I try to dress like the other kids even though I don't have the money. I try to know what the hot topics are so I can at least join in conversation, but I never can. I've never had the opportunity to live my age."

Despite the social land mines that await her on campus, she carries 13 credit hours that she hopes will put her closer to her dream of becoming a social worker.

For her second semester of college this spring, financial troubles forced Dexter-Cheeks to transfer to KVCC from nearby Western Michigan University, where she had begun last fall.

But thanks to a new program, she and as many other academically qualified former foster children who apply can attend Western next year on a full-tuition scholarship designed for students like her.

The Foster Youth and Higher Education Initiative will not only provide foster care students with financial assistance in the form of the four-year, full-tuition JohnSeita Scholarships, but also with the support network traditional students have in their families.

"These students will enter the university as a cohort and will be in a class together called the First Year Experience. It will orientate them to the university, help them with critical thinking and time management skills, and help them find tutoring and counseling right on campus," said YvonneUnrau, an associate professor of social work.

About 500 young people leave Michigan's foster care system each year. Of them, 100 enroll in higher education programs, but only 25 ever complete a degree, according to the Department of Human Services.

Prior to Western's initiative, former foster students were forced to cobble together financial aid from educational training vouchers of $5,000 a year, the state's Tuition Incentive Program and federal Pell grants, said Kate Hanley, director of the department's foster care permanency program.

With such shaky financial backing, the minute they ran into one of life's snags, they often had no choice but to drop out, she said.

It's a scenario John Seita of Battle Creek - for whom the scholarships are named - is all too familiar with. As a child, Seita went through 15 foster homes in 11 years before managing to earn three degrees from Western and going on to teach child welfare classes at Michigan State University.

"As students, former foster kids experience the emotional challenges that come from abandonment, loneliness and sadness," he said. "They also experience practical challenges that traditional students might not."

"Regular students have parents who have experience dealing with issues like seeking help from professors, what to do when you're short on money, how to do your laundry, where to go on Christmas break when the dorms close."

"The program at Western will provide those mentors that former foster kids need to be successful," he continued. "It's the perfect storm of good events."

Other schools are following Western's lead.

For example, the $2 million Paul and Amy Blavin Scholars fund at the University of Michigan offers former foster children $5,000 a year. U of M has five Blavin scholars, said Judy Malcolm, the university's senior director of executive communications.

MSU's School of Social Work offers about $1,200 a year to former foster children studying to become social workers.

But such programs are just a drop in the bucket when compared to the hundreds of former foster children who could go to college each year if the resources existed to support them.

Seita, Hanley and Amy Smitter of the Michigan Campus Compact are committed to adding more colleges to the list by increasing awareness of foster students' needs.

"We are trying to get universities to understand that there is this population of former foster kids that have special needs,"Smitter said. "When they do, they say, 'How can we help?'"

Beyond university outreach, another important piece of the puzzle, they say, is educating middle and high school teachers about the need to present college as a realistic possibility to foster children.

"We need to build up their spirit, convince them they can do it," Seita said. "Foster kids often come from dismal environments where they don't see people succeed, and so they think people who go to college must be superhuman. The goal needs to be to expose them to a broader range of experiences and opportunities than they have seen."

Opportunities that Dexter-Cheeks lives every day.

"When I'm walking on campus or studying in the library, I feel so proud of myself, but I'm careful not to get too prideful because it could all go away any minute," she said.